Why Hillary Clinton needs to get personal

Time to show your wounds, Hillary

Hillary Clinton would benefit from relating to American wives.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid)

Hillary Clinton is going to get one more chance to reintroduce herself to the American people. As I explained in my previous column in this series, she needs to use this opportunity to remind voters of the version of her they like best. Unfortunately for Clinton, the version they like best is the Hillary who is wounded, suffering — the Hillary who doesn't quit when she is losing. That's a person Americans are willing to trust — and she needs that trust to make the rest of her pitch.

I said in that column that I didn't expect Clinton to like my advice that she needs to show her vulnerability, her wounds, in order to get a hearing for her pitch. So it behooves me, if I want to my advice to be taken seriously, to anticipate her objections. So, with the help of my handy Hillary Emulator, here's an imagined dialogue with the candidate about the strategic case for Hillary getting personal.

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Noah Millman

Noah Millman is a screenwriter and filmmaker, a political columnist and a critic. From 2012 through 2017 he was a senior editor and featured blogger at The American Conservative. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Politico, USA Today, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, Foreign Policy, Modern Age, First Things, and the Jewish Review of Books, among other publications. Noah lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.